River-Border – an exhibition by Elena Tomilova [MD] Fest.md

Description

River-Border – an exhibition by Elena Tomilova [MD]
October 28, 2023, 19:00-21:00 – opening
November 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 2023, 16:00-20:00
Zpace (The House of Zemstvo, 103 Al. Șciusev str., Chișinău)

Zpatiu is honored to host Elena Tomilova’s new exhibition “River-Border”, with an exclusive artwork specifically designed for our space. The exhibition was conceived within the framework of the project “Cultural Taxi” – an art residence in Dubasari, Transdniestrian region. At its core, it is an exhibition about the city situated on the river, but also about our own inner “City on the River” that is in each of us. It combines several styles of painting and expresses several very different thoughts, in a multilayered and multidimensional way.

The exhibition also brings together works created within the art residence – Dubasari landscapes. The art series includes the symbolic 5-part series “River”; several acrylic works on canvas created in parallel with the project, several older works from previous series, as well as the installation “River-Border” created especially for the exhibition at Casa Zemstvei.

So, what is a river? What image does it carry, what do you feel when you hear this word?
This exhibition is about a river-border. A river that divides and unites its two banks – literally and metaphorically. A boundary, a watershed, two different countries, an old and a new life, a new phase, the light and the dark.
The river is the feminine essence, the river is a spiritual image, an iconic visualization, the soul of a place, the filling of the earth. But the river is also the depth and the fear of diving in. In a few words, this exhibition features the complex imagery of the river with its intuitive explanations.
“Two sides of me” says Elena Tomilova.

Elena Tomilova was born in 1986 in Chisinau. As a graduate student from the Academy of Arts in Chisinau, Elena Tomilova looked for herself in symbolism during her studies but tried to also cover academic realism and other styles of painting closer to the classical ones. She later engaged mostly in public activities, organizing events, and tried related fields (like ceramics or illustration), but she kept going towards symbolism, albeit slowly. She took part in exhibitions, group projects in Moldova and abroad (Romania, Hungary).

In 2016, she entered Veaceslav Fisticanu’s master’s program at I.Creanga University and finally began to realize and separate her style, direction and plastic language. She completed her master’s degree in 2018 in contemporary painting and she has been painting non-stop ever since. Defining her style as “mix of abstract and figurative art” in a symbolic way, she however freely turns to such genres as landscape, still life, pure abstraction, without losing her language.

In 2022, she conceived and implemented (as an artist, organizer and curator) a women group’s exhibition, “More than the body”, where she tried to find through painting an alternative way to find another body, between the physical and the spiritual, and to find the sublime in the ordinary.

She regularly participates in exhibitions in Moldova and abroad. In 2023, she was selected and participated in the Biennale in Bratislava, and participated in the Biennale in Brasov (Bienala Albastra Brasov).

Few words from the artist:
“I like to experiment, but so far only within the framework of acrylic painting, I see in it the potential of combining old and new art. I see the potential of combining old and new art. I especially like to express myself through female images, to rethink being in a woman’s body. I like to combine the spiritual and the material, to reflect through art on their unity and opposition. In addition to painting, I am engaged in movement – mostly with modern dance and circus art (air gymnastics). I consider it as much a facet of myself as painting. I try with my works to touch on a variety of topics, experiences, events, but keep in my art light and faith in the beautiful essence and future of mankind.”

The Cultural Taxi program

In 2023, the project Taxi Cultural – art residence in Dubasari (Transnistria) took place, in the framework of which the concept of the exhibition “River” was created. The aim of the project was to unite and make the artistic world of the two banks of the Dniester interact. The purpose and meaning of the exhibition was to comprehend the image of the river as a dividing and uniting object in the direct and metaphorical sense.